I may know a bit more of its intricacies than does Little Arcady
at large, but not enough to permit that certain thrill of superior
discernment which I have so often been able to enjoy in Slocum County.
Each of the two, considered alone, is fairly comprehensible. But taken
together, there is something between them which must always baffle
me--something which I cannot believe to have been at all typical of the
relation between owner and slave, else many of the facts noted by our
discerning and impartial investigators were either imperfectly observed
or unintelligently reported.
Up to a certain point my own studies of this slave-holder aligned
perfectly with the information which we of the North had been at such
pains to gather. And I tried to hold Miss Caroline blameless,
remembering that she had been long schooled to the inhumanity of it.
I resolved, nevertheless, to take Clem under my own roof--there was a
small unused room almost directly under it--the moment Miss Caroline's
impatience with him should move her to the extremes foretold by her
abusive fashion of speech. I would not see even a negro turned out in
the coldest of winters for no better reason than that he was sick and
useless, though I planned to intervene delicately, so as not to affront
my neighbor.
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